A kiss from the wind -The Walking dead. Daryl Dixon/OC
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Chapter 9- Calm
Summary: The gnarled hand scrabbled uselessly against the ground, rotting body trapped under the mangled car wreck, reaching, moaning and snarling. Charlotte grimaced, moving further out of reach and crouched to the ground. "Come on kid." Daryl's voice sounded behind her, a hand landing on her shoulder, "Leave it. We got ground to cover." Daryl/OC
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POSSIBLE TRIGGER WARNINGS... NOT SURE. JUST BE WARNED. Proceed with caution etc etc .
Oh you guys! I'm blushing! Thanks for your awesome support! Especially you SIGK1!
Sorry, that I've taken so long to update, my laptop broke and my new one is Windows 8 and who the hell likes or even knows how to use that shite anyways?! Grrrr...
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"Sometimes you forget." Charlotte spoke as she stood beside Andrea staring out at the woods, "What's really out there. Here, there's guards and guns and no one here is really a good person but you're protected you know."
"Yeah." Andrea agreed, "It doesn't feel safe but it feels protected."
"The guards are pretty good, focused." Charlotte explained, she met Andrea's eyes, "There's not really any weak points. In or out."
Andrea nodded, understanding in her blue eyes. "Back at the farm, we guarded ourselves, took shifts keeping watch and fended for ourselves. But we were free you know. I preferred that."
"So would've I." Charlotte smiled. "Anyway, I have to make sure that Jamie isn't up to no good. Just thought I'd let you know. About how safe this place is."
"I appreciate it." Andrea said, turning to return to her camp.
Charlotte had heard them speaking later that night, after leaving her book with Daryl. Rick, Andrea and Glenn, talking about weaknesses in the camps defence. Charlotte knew they were planning an escape, she had figured it would be easier to point out to them now what she had learned over her time here, escape was practically impossible.
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"Their defence is strong." Andrea relayed to the others as she joined the group discussion, "The guards are focused, the watch never empty. There wont be any way out without a distraction."
"How do you know that?" T-Dog questioned.
"Charlotte told me."
"She knows?" Rick asked.
Daryl nodded, "Course she does. She ain't stupid."
"Maybe she could help?" Maggie asked, "She seems like a good person, she hasn't tried to hurt any of us, the opposite actually."
"You think she would?" Hershel asked.
"She told me about the defence of this place. She made it sound like a conversation in case anyone was laughing, but I knew what she was really saying."
"And," Lori said, " she warned Daryl not to get comfortable here, that its not safe. I think she's a safe bet."
Rick took a moment to consider, frowning, he met Daryl's eyes and shook his head, "I'm sorry Daryl, but we can't risk it. We can't risk more people getting hurt. If she comes then her brother does too, then the woman and the other child. We cannot risk more people."
"You crazy?" Daryl asked, "She can help us and we cant leave those kids here."
"I need you with me on this Daryl. I need you to understand."
Daryl shook his head, "Its wrong man."
"Daryl-"
"I'm with ya Rick. Y'know that."
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Charlotte smiled as she passed Lori and Rick who were returning under guard from the river and they nodded in return, hoisting the large pot Betty had given her in her arms.
"You guys good?" she asked them, wondering how the baby was doing, of course she knew Lori was pregnant, she held herself in exactly the same way her mother had when pregnant with Jamie and Rick was far too protective of his wife for there to be nothing else.
"Yeah." Lori said quietly, knowingly, "No problems."
"We're fine." Rick spoke. Cool." Charlotte smiled, "I'm just heading to the other side of the river, Betty needs
"some more water for the food. Something needs boiling!"
"Be careful." Lori called after her.
"There's guards around there. I'll be fine." Charlotte replied, "Plus I've got my axe." She tapped her trusty weapon against her hip as she continued along the way.
The other end of the river was located off another path and less densely covered or guarded than the rest of the camp, though it was still rare for anyone to slip in or out, bar one time a dead person had slipped through when a guard had been distracted. He'd been dispatched quickly though.
Charlotte meandered through the trees towards the opening, axe swinging against her leg. The river loomed ahead, upstream from where people washed, meaning the dirt and grime from their bodies didn't end up in anything used for their food.
She bent down towards the river on her knees and lowered the empty pot into the water, rinsing it first, though it was clean before refilling it and placing it onto the side.
A loud crunch from the trees to her right startled her to her feet. Her hand immediately moved to the handle of her axe and she stilled, "Hello?" she called, not wanting to draw her weapon if she were just hearing a guard change, she wasn't sure of the time so couldn't be sure if that were the case.
"Is someone there?"
She received no reply and wondered if it hadn't been a stray animal or perhaps just a natural shifting in the foliage around her, as she began to relax however, another crack sounded, closer. She stiffened and released her axe from the binding on her belt, grasping it in the way her father had shown her, long ago when weapon training had become necessary. She swallowed and scanned the trees from the general direction that she had heard the noise. She waited nervously for something to happen, for someone to step through into the clearing, alive or dead. Attempting to steady her breathing she waited, knowing that she could not just leave... if a dead person had slipped through again, if one had breached camp it would need to be taken care of, if she ran or took the time to notify someone else it might slip away, somewhere in the camp. She could not risk that.
She wrung her hands around the handle of her axe, feeling them start to sweat, "Hello?" she asked again, unable to see anything ahead of her, nor hear anymore movement, Betty's pot forgotten she moved towards the general vicinity she had been watching, quiet so as not to attract any attention, stealthily.
Nothing moved ahead and she frowned, unsure of what to do now, did she risk it? Did she leave and find someone else or stay where she was? Did she...
A hand wrapped roughly around her mouth as another arm circled her waist, she shrieked, but barely anything came out around the tightening hand.
"Ssssshh." her captor whispered into her ear even as his hand moved from her waist and ripped her axe from her hand. She recognised the voice and stiffened in fear.
She felt David grin against her ear, "Hey beautiful." he leered, "You come here often?"
She heard her axe thud as he threw it across the clearing out of reach, she struggled against his hold and scrabbled at his grip with her own hands. "Now, now." he growled as he stepped forwards, pushing her along with him towards the trees, stronger than she could ever hope to be. "Get off me!" she cried, still muffled beneath his dirty hand.
"Stop struggling and we wont have a problem." David growled as he removed his hand from her mouth.
"Fuck you!" Charlotte spat, trying to pull away from his grip, she tried to scream but found her voice caught in her throat as David grabbed her hair and shoved her head hard against the nearest tree trunk. Searing pain shot down her face, stemming from her forehead, the point of first contact with the tree. She felt as if time was moving in slow motion and she could feel the skin on the left of her forehead slowly splitting at the contact, her nose throbbed and her left cheekbone followed suit, bleeding as he pulled her head away.
"Just shut up." David whispered, "I'd hate to have to do that again."
Charlotte whimpered, her face and head throbbing as David threw her roughly onto the ground just inches from the river edge. She pulled her wits about her quickly and scrambled to her hands and knees, crawling away from the laughing bastard behind her. A hand wrapped roughly around her booted ankle and pulled her backwards, front and face scraping across the floor. She kicked back as his hands grappled at her waist to turn her over, "No!" she gasped, "No." She slid her hands across the ground grabbing for something , anything she could find, her hand found something hard even as David's strength twisted her onto her back, she brought the object up, hard against his head, the rock, she realised that was what she had grabbed, made a disgusting crack followed by a wet squelch as it made contact with his skull. David gasped and growled face distorting with anger even as she hit him again. The second time he fell to the side, weight leaving her, she quickly scrambled away, hand slipping down the river bank and into the sun warmed water. Sweat dripped down from her hair line, stinging the cuts and scratches on her face. She breathed heavily lunging across the ground to grab her axe.
"David?" She rasped, climbing shakily to her feet. "David?"
She toed at his shoulder with her boot but his body remained limp and she received no response. "David?" she asked quietly again before stumbling backwards into the trees, towards camp, her vision blurred and doubled, "Help!" she called as she stumbled blindly through the trees, "Someone!"
The clearing of the camp appeared ahead and she blustered through into camp, "Help me!" she cried as she stumbled into a pair of arms, "Daryl" she gasped up at the shocked mans face.
"What the hell happened to you?" he grasped, legs buckling under the shock of her unexpected weight.
"David-" she sobbed, breathing heavily, "He- I hit him- I think he's dead." She glanced towards a guard and said, "You need to- I think he's dead."
She heard some commotion as people began rushing around, some surrounding them, others heading towards the river clearing.
"Let me through!" she heard Betty calling as the older lady pushed through the crowd, "Charlotte, oh girl, I shouldn't have let you go alone. I shouldn't have let him get to you."
Betty kneeled before her, dwindling first aid kit in her hands, "Did he-"
Charlotte shook her head, wincing at the throbbing pain it caused in her skull.
"He didn't have the chance." she replied, loosening her grip on Daryl's arms as he helped to move her hair back from her bloodied face.
"He did this to you? That slimy guy that you said likes to intimidate people? This what you call intimidatin'? Throwin' his weight about?"
"He's never done anything this bad before." Betty spoke for her as she pressed a swab of wet cotton against the first cut. The injury stung painfully and she hissed, "Jesus Christ!" She noticed more commotion to her right as a group of people emerged back into the camp her eyes met those of Carol who stood silently behind Daryl, an understanding, haunted expression on her face. "Is he dead?" She asked her, indicating the group fussing over David.
Carol shook her head, "No. He's moving, bleeding pretty badly though."
"Good." Daryl spat. "He should be given a taste of his own medicine. Why did no one watch him? Why isn't he kept away?"
"Because most them are the same." Charlotte whispered, cringing against the stinging touch of cloth against her face, "That's what they do. Most of them anyway. Randall, he didn't he was good. But good people don't last son long here."
"Randall?" Carol asked, face stricken.
"Yeah." Charlotte said, "He was a good kid. He never came back from a raid. But the others, if they get a woman alone, don't matter how old they are. They-" she swallowed, directing the next part to Daryl, "Don't leave any of your women alone. Don't stay here, if they find that you're of no use they'll kill you, but they'll keep the women, and the women will wish they were dead."
Daryl nodded. "I understand."
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"Daryl calm down." Rick growled, glancing wearily towards where the crossbow wielder paced.
"Calm down?! You saw what that guy did to her!" he indicated Charlotte's tent where she slept inside fitfully, her eight year old brother sat outside the tent in some useless form of protection. "You know what he would have done. And he's treated like a hero, he'll be walking round soon like nothin' happened. Free to try again!"
"Rick- we told you what she said, this is Randall's group, The ones he told us about, the rapists and murderers, no one is safe here. We have to leave as soon as we can."
Rick nodded, holding his wife close to his side, "I know."
"Charlotte comes with us." Daryl hissed, "No choice. She ain't safe, they'll kill her. She comes with."
"The kids too." Andrea stepped up, "And the old lady."
"We can't willingly leave anyone here." Carol said, "Not to this abuse."
"She can help us." Lori agreed, "She can help with the plan."
Rick swallowed, glanced towards the tent with the injured woman inside, hurt not from a walker but from the more immediate threat of a human. He looked at the boy, younger than his own son, tiredly keeping vigil outside, he thought of David, smug and slimy and free to roam the camp the moment he is stead on his feet.
"Yeah," he said, "they come too."
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Wasn't really sure where to leave it so just left it here.
I'm kind of drained after this one but then that could be because people suck. I prefer my online people like you guys, Truly!
So yeah. Hope you enjoyed!